The present disclosure relates generally to a progressive laser blanking device for high speed cutting of material and, more specifically, to a device that utilizes synchronized laser cutting operations along multiple axes and on a continuously moving strip of material.
Existing press-based mechanical blanking systems perform material cutting operations on flat, stationary sections of strips of material positioned underneath a press. Typically, a strip of material unreels from a coil stock, and the strip is straightened as it is fed into an automatic feeder. The feeder feeds the strip to a belt conveyor, which then moves the strip along the belt until it is situated directly beneath the mechanical press. Movement of the belt conveyor is then suspended until the mechanical press can cut a blank or a cut-out from the strip material.
Production rates are dependent upon the collective time it takes to continually suspend and restart conveyor movement so that the mechanical press can cut from the different portions of the strip; namely, each component of the entire system, such as, for example, the conveyor, the mechanical press, and the off-line robotic systems, etc., perform their respective operations consecutively.
The production rate of an existing press-based feeder system can basically be measured as the time it takes to cut out blanks from an entire coil stock. This system is inefficient due to the repeated start-and-stop operations of the conveyor; hence, there exists a need to eliminate the starting and stopping interruptions to the process. More specifically, there exists a need to perform laser cutting operations in one continuous phase, such that successive cutting-operations are capable of being performed repeatedly on a continuously moving strip of material.
The present disclosure is directed towards a laser blanking system that overcomes the foregoing inefficiencies and others while providing more advantageous results. Specifically, the laser blanking system includes a plurality of moving components which simultaneously perform cutting and blanking operations on a rapidly and continuously moving strip of material, thus eliminating or minimizing disruptions to the cutting and blanking process.